Appendix:G'Vunna pronunciation
The G'Vunna language has 25 consonants, 8 vowels, and no glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | |
| b | b | bog | |
| ch | tʃ | each | |
| d | d | dog | |
| dh | ð | this | |
| e | e | bet | |
| ə | ə | sofa | |
| f | f | food | |
| g | g | good | |
| gh | ɣ~ʁ | - | Like French r in rouge. |
| i | i | machine | |
| j | dʒ | jam | |
| k | k | skill | |
| kh | x~χ | - | Like German ch in Buch. |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | |
| ng | ŋ | sing | |
| o | o | tote | |
| ö | ø | - | Like German ö in Köln. |
| p | p | span | |
| q | q | - | Like a [k] but further back in the mouth. |
| r | ʀ | - | |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʃ | sheep | |
| t | t | stop | |
| th | θ | thin | |
| u | u | rude | |
| ü | y | - | Like German ü in für. |
| v | v | voice | |
| z | z | zoo | |
| zh | ʒ | azure |
Notes:
- Doubled consonants, or geminates, occur frequently in G'Vunna. To pronounce a doubled consonant, simply pronounce it twice. You might think of it as lingering over the consonant. Think of the "s" sound you pronounce in "Miss Sally". It's a longer "s" than if you pronounce the similar phrase "Miss Ally". The same goes for the doubled consonants of G'Vunna. One important note about the romanization: If a digraph (e.g. kh, gh, etc.) is doubled, only the first letter will be doubled (hence, kkh not khkh). The consonant is pronounced like a doubled consonant, though, as actual combinations such as k followed by kh are impossible.
Phonetics
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b |
t d |
k g |
q | ||
| Affricate | tʃ ⟨ch⟩ dʒ ⟨j⟩ |
|||||
| Fricative | f v |
θ ⟨th⟩ ð ⟨dh⟩ |
s z |
ʃ ⟨sh⟩ ʒ ⟨zh⟩ |
x ⟨kh⟩ ɣ ⟨gh⟩ |
|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||
| Approximant | l | ʀ ⟨r⟩ |
Vowels
G'Vunna uses [ə] as a phoneme, with equal status to all the other vowels. The vowel system consists of 8 vowels and is summarized in the following table:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | i | y ⟨ü⟩ | u | |
| Mid | e | ø ⟨ö⟩ | ə | o |
| Open | a | |||
G'Vunna has high-low vowel harmony, with the following pairs:
- i ~ e
- y ~ ø
- u ~ o
- ə ~ a
This means that all G'Vunna words contain vowels only from either the former or the latter set.
Stress
Primary stress falls on the first heavy syllable from the left, not counting the last consonant of the word, any syllable ending in a consonant or containing a diphthong counts as heavy.
However, some old diphthongs are no longer pronounced but still cause syllables to count as heavy. Some compounds are also stressed irregularly.